Historic Sites - Rugby
25 Rugby
- Christ Church at Rugby.
Rugby, a rural English colony founded by Thomas Hughes in the 1880s, was established to provide homes and livelihood in the United States for the younger sons of English gentry. Hughes was a liberal member of Parliament, Queen’s Counsel, author and supporter of trade unionism in England before it was legal. He established Rugby so that younger sons of the gentry could enter manual trades without disgrace. A testing ground for Hughes’ progressive ideas, he called Rugby a "cooperative colony," but private ownership soon won out. At one time 450 colonists lived here, but an 1881 typhoid epidemic and an 1884 fire proved the downfall of the colony. Rugby was the last organized English colony in the United States. Surviving are seventeen original Victorian buildings, including the Hughes Public Library with over 7,000 original volumes, and Christ Church, where services have been held since 1887. Restaurants and accommodations are nearby.
Rugby Web Site
Tennessee Highway 52,
Rugby, TN 37733
(423) 628-2441
